At long last, Ed Balls is beginning to listen to his critics. I don't mean he's intending to reverse any of the disastrous decisions he took during his three years as Schools Secretary, such as his insistence that every new Academy should be forced to teach the National Curriculum. No, I mean he's clearly trying hard not to blink so often.

As several commentators have pointed out, blinking frequently while talking is a classic hallmark of a pathological liar and Balls is now doing his best to conceal this "tell". On The Daily Politics this afternoon, debating education with Michael Gove and David Laws, he seemed to be making a superhuman effort to stop blinking. The effect was to make him seem like a fanatic, eyes bulging with ideological zeal. As Guido Fawkes asked on Twitter: "Has Ed Balls tried supergluing his eyelids open?" The result was comic and slightly frightening, giving him an uncanny resemblance to the leader of the Martian invasion in Mars Attacks (see above). I was watching the debate with my one-year-old son Charlie and every time Balls appeared on screen he screamed, "Mummy!"

Next time Ed Balls is on The Daily Politics I'd appreciate it if Andrew Neil begins by saying that the following broadcast will not not suitable for children.